Friday, December 28, 2012

In case you haven't noticed 2012 is fast coming to a close
and it's been a rollicking year even with a weak economy. THQ and OnLive went belly up due to financial
troubles and many developers either consolidated their studios or closed altogether.

Even long popular gaming franchises found
themselves forced to compete on more than just name recognition with some more
capable than others.

Still there were bright spots this year as well as those not
so luminous. So let's get on with my own
top (and bottom) 5 gaming related picks.

First, the good stuff.

THE BEST

1. Torchlight 2 -
While somewhat obscure this RPG is everything Diablo 3 should have been. Good looking, engrossing gameplay, easy UI
navigation and with no more profit motive beyond the initial purchase
price. The addition of cooperative play
brought back fond memories of playing hours of Dungeon Siege 2. Runic has achieved on a much smaller scale
what larger developers with more resources still can't seem to, namely,
making a game you actually want to keep playing.

2. Borderlands 2 -
Looking back over my old blog posts you'd be excused if you thought I hated
this game. Nothing is further from the
truth. While the game is afflicted with
"DLC Disease" and was overpriced at launch at $60 (as is the case
with most other triple-A titles these days) the core game stands on its own and
leaves you wanting for nothing. You need
buy no more than the base game to enjoy hours of single player and co-op
fun. The game is better looking than its predecessor and
takes advantage of enthusiast hardware but is no less entertaining on less
capable hardware like my 3 year old gaming laptop. If an FPS shooter set in a comic book Mad Max
world appeals to you then take advantage of a Steam Sale and pick up a copy for
yourself.

3. Orcs Must Die 2
- I can't help but be reminded of the classic 80's arcade game Dragon's
Lair. Easy controls and infinitely re-playable the addition of cooperative play mode only made this game
better. If this game's addictive it's due to
beautifully rendered maps, humorous storyline and a constant variety of
adversaries. Let's face it, it's the
21st century version of Space Invaders meaning you have limited resources to
battle waves of ever more difficult adversaries. It's the strict adherence to that simple
formula that keeps this game in my personal library. The only reason it's so far down the list is
that it's easily hacked with a memory editor that pretty much invalidates the global
scoreboard. Kind of hard to brag about
30000 points when someone had 1 billion showing on launch day.

4. The Geforce GTX
680 Video Card - PCPerspective may like the AMD 7970 better but you can't
beat the price for performance of the latest Nvidia Enthusiast card. Using less power with equal if not better
performance than AMD's offering I'm convinced my next gaming rig's going to run
Nvidia. Then there's the whole
"PhysX" capability if you care about such things, which I don't. Not to mention the still somewhat awkward AMD
driver model. AMD driver packages are
still too big, take too long to install and are far more prone to corruption
than NVIDIA's offering. I'm also someone
who has two game rigs running AMD 69xx graphics by the way so I know from
whence I speak.

But seriously, Nvidia's
learned some lessons from its mobile division and brought the best ideas to its
enthusiast graphics family. Sorry AMD
guys but you're about a generation back and at this point it's not reasonable
for a an idling enthusiast video card to be pulling down more than 250
watts. Game bundles are nice but they're
not a good metric to compare hardware. A
friend of mine replaced a pair of juiced 6950's in crossfire with a pair of
680's to run his 30" monitor that runs 2K resolutions. A single 680 allowed full resolution with medium
settings, two in SLI is even better but bordering on the pornographic..

5. PC hardware in
general - While I'm still somewhat
dismayed that there really isn't an enthusiast platform for CPU and chipsets
anymore the mainstream is impressive.
Even with a good enthusiast graphics card in the mix you can still build
a stout gaming rig for around $1000 that will pummel any previous Intel
generation. The emphasis
is on lower power consumption without giving up any of the performance and
that's a good thing. The only downside
is that AMD isn't really any competition to Intel in the PC gaming space which
keeps prices higher and slows innovation.

Honorable Mention

Killing Floor -
This game is going on 4 years old but is still actively supported with regular
updates and entertaining new DLC all the time.
If you've never seen a zombie in a Santa Cap you're missing out.

Big Picture -
Finally a way to easily navigate Steam on a big screen TV!

Now for the bad stuff and while it was tough to come up with the bright spots this year the bad stuff was easy.

THE WORST

1. Subscriptions and DLC creep
- This one isn't that new but really started taking off in 2012. It started awhile back with Call of Duty
Elite and now every triple-A title with a multiplayer option has a
"premium" subscription offering.
Battlefield 3, Call of Duty and Borderlands all offer it with other
popular franchises looking at the option.
If it was just restricted to DLC
that'd be fine but in the case of Battlefield 3 it's become downright
discriminatory. Restricted access to
servers, special "Premium only XP" events and unlocks that give an
unfair advantage to "premium" players are all hallmarks.

It seems these days publishers want you to pay twice for a
game or suffer a diminished experience. Game DLC isn't much better with prices usually
around $15 which might give your character a change of clothes and a few new maps
which you may or may not have access to if you're not a "premium"
subscriber. Beware overhyped DLC as well. One of the worst DLC packs I
ever bought was for Call of Duty: Black Ops.
For my $15 I got rehashed zombie maps from COD: World at War and a moon
map, yippee...

Of course if you "subscribe" that DLC is
"Free" but in the end you're paying twice for content that really should
have already been there for the inflated price.
Worse, with EA's model you get all the DLC pain whether you want it or not. You can count on waiting for at least a 4 GB
download on the week preceding any new DLC release and a host of global game
tweaks to support it. All the suffering,
none of the benefits which leads to my
next pick.

2. The $60 game -
I don't know when this happened exactly but it seems 2012 was the year for any
game with a major publisher behind it to squeeze you for $60 or more. Why? There is no inflation in fact we're in a
recession, development staffs have been slashed and development hardware is
cheaper than ever so where's the rationale?
Considering you'll probably have to buy additional DLC packs or
"Subscribe" the cost of entry is awfully steep. Worse not every game is worthy of its
price. Remember "Rage?" I have a few theories about why but they all
lead back to one thing, greed.

3. Diablo 3 -
Probably the most anticipated sequel in recent gaming history Diablo 3 has
become the poster child for all that is wrong with gaming in 2012. First, launch day found millions of rabid
players looking at an error screen because of Blizzard's poor capacity
planning. Next up, the "new" in-game
marketplace that was supposed to allow players to trade and purchase game items found itself hacked almost from day one.
Linux players using Wine to play D3 found themselves bannedand labeled as
cheaters without recourse with Blizzard refusing to refund the purchase price
for their legitimate copies. Finally the
constant Internet connection even when playing the Single player D3 is nothing
short of draconian. Runic's Torchlight 2
may not be as pretty as D3 but it's a far better experience. Not everyone wants WoW in their D3 Blizzard!

4. Medal of Honor:
Warfighter - What can I say, another example of pimping out EA's Frostbite
2 engine on a half-baked overpriced "triple-A" title. Stupid AI, bad storylines and in general an
overall bad experience forced even EA to admit that the game was a flop. That doesn't stop them from asking full price
for it on its EA's Origin service, however.
It's also heavily promoted within
Battlefield 3's "Battlelog" web interface, forever reminding you of its
existence like a glowing "service engine" light on your car's dash . EA even promised
early Beta access to Battlefield 4 for Warfighter pre-orders! Now that's desperation.

5. The WiiU - Arguably, this thing was DOA. A pathetic gaming
library, underwhelming hardware and gimmicky features make this console too
little too late. Slow load times, bad
Wii game compatibility not to mention that whole "adult" content
restriction makes this device a perfect example of where consoles "don't"
need to go.

Dishonorable mention

Slow Steam Servers
and never ending updates - Valve's been working on improving its regional
Steam download servers and they can't do it fast enough as far as I'm
concerned. I still routinely have to
switch servers when I'm getting rates under 128K on an otherwise good connection. EA is even worse, especially if you own
Battlefield 3. Up to one hour of my
weekly game night is routinely taken up by updates, luckily there's usually beer handy. Worse, with Origin (unlike Steam) you can't choose servers like you can with Steam. If it's slow you're stuck.

So that's it, my picks for the best and worst of gaming for
2012. Whether you agree or disagree with
my picks I encourage you to check them out for yourself. I've included a few links to other popular
year-end lists below.

Friday, December 21, 2012

This Week...Steam's got a sale! A new Star Trek game coming,
THQ hits the skids and oh yeah it's the 21st and we're still here.

So it appears the world didn't end and you will indeed have
to pay the credit card bill for all those games you bought on Steam this week
during the Holiday Sale. Speaking of
that, the holiday sale is going on right now and ends January 5th. The requisite daily and instant deals are all
there as well as the special holiday sale badges you can earn for discount
coupons and free games.

If you're a fan of the new Star Trek "reboot" movies
then developer Digital Extremes (Bioshock 2, The Darkness 2)and Namco have a
special treat for you. Described as an "unprecedented co-op
experience" "Star Trek" will be available on April 23rd with
pre-orders open now. The game will be
available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. At
this point they're asking $59.99 for the pre-order at Best Buy, Amazon and
GameStop for the Xbox and PS3 platforms.
PC versions don't appear to be available for pre-order yet.

The world may still be here but troubled publisher THQ
isn't. They've filed for bankruptcy
protection and sold 60 million dollars worth of assets including all 4 of its
game studios and intellectual property including games currently in
development. Clearlake Capital Group is
the buyer and reports thus far say nothing is going to change except the
ownership with all talent and contracts being retained by the new owners. THQ's assets essentially remain the same but
the debts are left behind with the old company filing bankruptcy. The move is called a stalking horse bid which
is a way to better position a company for sale after it jettisons its debts via
bankruptcy.

If you've been wondering what Steven Sinfofsky's been up to
since being jettisoned from Microsoft
weeks after the Windows 8 launch ponder no more. He's going to be teaching "product
development" at Harvard business school this spring. I wonder if part of his curriculum will
include dissertations on collaboration and teamwork...hmm. His title, by the way, will be
"Executive in Residence"

In case you found yourself bumped off your favorite
Battlefield 3 server Early Wednesday morning the reason was a server update to
fix "3 bugs". Apparently there
was an immortality bug for certain player classes, broken spawn points on the
"Strike at Karkand" map and a crash that occurs when playing in Gun
Master mode which is only available to owners of Close Quarters and Aftermath
DLC as well as Premium players. Downtime
was supposed to be 15 minutes but ended up being twice that. The immortality bug is bad enough, worse it
isn't map specific which should have been picked up sooner. Will you be readjusting stats or continue to
screw players unfairly affected by it?
The biggest bug in BF3 is EA's profit motive

We're at the end of a slow news cycle being so close to
Christmas so the news is a bit light this week.
That gives me an opportunity to remind you that many of your favorite
games like Team Fortress 2, Killing Floor and Lord of Ultima have holiday
themes to keep you in the spirit of the season while your boost your
stats.

Finally,

I'd like to direct you to an article I recently published on
Technorati concerning a new push to blame video games for the tragedy at Sandy
Hook. Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller
from West Virginia is pushing a bill to get congress to look at violence in
video games again. He uses Starcraft as
one of the examples of a violent video game which you and I both know are about
as violent as Farmville with explosions.
Gamers usually aren't very political but it may be a good time to make
your voice heard. Games don't make
people kill, sick minds do and we need to stop the hysteria and deal with the
real problem. Besides, you'd think with
the country teetering on the brink of the fiscal cliff there'd be more
important things for congress to worry about!

That's it for the last Midagedgamer report for 2012. Yup, I'm going to give you the greatest gift
of all and not do a video next week.
Mostly because I probably won't have Internet access anymore but we
won't get into that... Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Kwanza
and whatever else you people celebrate when it's cold outside. Oh yeah, sorry, belated Happy Chanukah too..

Thursday, December 20, 2012

No one can deny the loss suffered in Newtown Connecticut
last week. It was perpetrated by a
disturbed individual with no regard for life, including his own. His
actions made more egregious than even Columbine or Aurora by his choice of
victim. Young children, whose lives had
just begun, viciously cut short in an instant.
Survivors, whose innocence forever ripped away must now carry the weight
of a memory that will never leave them.

There is no denying this single event is unrivaled in recent
American History. Unfortunately, thrown
in with public outcries for stricter gun control is the tired rhetoric of the
role of violent video games in this type of tragedy. Senator
Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia hasa bill in congress in the wake of Sandy Hook to study the impact of violent
video games specifically targeting their impact on children. From his
introduction of the bill on Wednesday,

"...some people
still do not get it," he continued
"They believe that violent video games are no more dangerous to young
minds than classic literature or Saturday morning cartoons. Parents,
pediatricians, and psychologists know better. These court decisions show we
need to do more and explore ways Congress can lay additional groundwork on this
issue. This report will be a critical resource in this process."

The bill was prompted by reports that Adam Lanza, responsible for the Sandy Hook murders, "may" have played
video games like "Call of Duty" and "Starcraft."

Just as in the Columbine and Aurora incidents we again find
video games at the center of controversy.
Frankly, as horrific as Sandy Hook was, it seems we're again searching
for the easy scapegoat. When we act out
of emotion, reason has no quarter.

It's more likely that the good Senator from West Virginia is
the one who truly, "doesn't get it."

Just as in Columbine the perpetrator was an individual with
a history of emotional and psychiatric issues.
In the case of Adam Lanza, his mother Nancy Lanza (also a victim) was
seeking to have him institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital. Lanza's conflict with his mother, not video
games, is a leading theory to explain Sandy Hook.

Of course for politicians and media types, anything that even
suggests a violent theme must be a contributing factor when a tragedy like this
occurs. A disturbed and bullied teenager
is far less interesting than the prospect of that same teenager being driven to
madness by the likes of "Starcraft."
Starcraft, by the way is a real time strategy video game more akin to
the classic board game "Risk" than the movie "Natural Born
Killers."

In the end Starcraft might as well be Farmville with
explosions. To suggest it's in any way a
foundation for mass murder is nothing less than political theater born of
sloppy thinking.

It's far easier to point our collective finger at the
symptoms rather than the ailment. After
all, it requires less reflection on our own actions. In the case of Columbine for example, Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold were two disturbed teenagers whose fascination with violent themes was blamed on the
video game "Doom." Only later
was it revealed that both had a history of run-ins with the law and psychiatric
issues.

Issues exacerbated by frequent bullying and isolation from
their peers as well as inattentive parents.
Over a decade later the detrimental effects of bullying have only
recently entered the public consciousness when it became a "cause célèbre."

Here we're presented with yet another example of the fallacy
of the straw man. Be it for political
gain or intellectual laziness we prefer the sensational to the rational. Our preferred solution is always biased toward
avoiding our own complicity in the cause.
Think about how many times you looked away when action was required
or shunned another because they didn't fit our vision of
"normal." In those actions we
sow the seeds of tragedy.

The ramifications of indifference rarely rise to level of a
Sandy Hook but exact a toll just the same.
Blaming an entertainment medium is nothing more than a distraction that
allows us to remain in the shallow reality of some idyllic societal norm.

At some point we have to admit that It's not the game, it's
the player.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

For the third year in a row Tripwire has released a special holiday update for Killing floor during their "Twisted Christmas" Event. The update is free and comes down automatically on steam. There is apparently a free to play option as well for those who haven't already purchased the game.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Steam Box...confirmed, ME4 and Crysis 3 news, how to spot a
lousy game review and voyeurs are making
advertisers drool...

Well it's kinda confirmed.
As if the "Big Picture" option in your Steam client wasn't a
big enough hint. Valve'sGabeNewell grudgingly admitted at this year's VGA'sthat his company was indeed working on the rumored "Steam
Box." The device will likely have
a static hardware platform similar to existing consoles but based on the PC
architecture.

We don't know much more than it's guts are going to be some
kind of PC. The real question is, what OS will it'll be running? Of course there's speculation that it will be
Linux but considering the bulk of Steam Games are Windows titles that may not
be the best option. Considering the
heavy reliance most popular games have on DirectX (which only shows up on Windows and Xbox) that would be asking non-Valve
developers to develop for a new Operating System. One that is in addition to their development
for the Steam on Windows (and to a lesser degree Mac) platform.

The last I checked nobody really cared about OpenGL
anymore.

Let's also not forget that one of the world's largest game publishers, EA,
started its own portal expressly to compete with Steam and does quite well on
the PC, Xbox and PS3 platforms. None of
which is a threat to their core revenue stream the way Valve's Steam is. While EA has made overtures to the Linux
community there's been no suggestion of developing their own hardware.

This begs the question of whether the world needs another
console. PC gaming has been experiencing
a minor renaissance in the past few years with Triple-A titles being optimized
if not available exclusively on the PC platform. PC's, especially gaming and enthusiast models
are not static beasts either. Memory, Storage,
CPU and graphics are at the discretion of their owners and can support at least
one round of upgrades before being retired.

Consoles don't share that trait and to base a console like
device on static PC hardware with similar limitations seems wasteful. Not to mention the versatility a PC platform
enjoys that a console could never offer.
It's one thing to watch a Blu-Ray movie on a device for example but
quite another to produce one.

Newell also mused about Living Room PC's which sounded
eerily like just another HTPC with a better video card. A form factor quickly losing ground to
appliances like Apple TV and Roku by the way.

Newell seems to think otherwise, however...

"Well certainly our hardware will be a very controlled environment,"
he said. "If you want more flexibility, you can always buy a more general
purpose PC. For people who want a more turnkey solution, that's what some
people are really gonna want for their living room."

Valve has also been trying to expand Steam to include
productivity software on the platform.
That doesn't lend itself to the "squishy" interface of "Big
Picture," however, even if the underlying hardware is more capable. It
seems like the Steam Box's biggest problem at this point may be multiple
personality disorder.

If you're a fan of the Mass Effect series the news this week
of Mass Effect 4 probably has you searching for new Commander Shepard
wallpaper. Expected out in late 2014 to
early 2015 the game will be based on the Frostbite 2 game engine with goodies
lifted from Dragon Age 3. The new game
will come from Bioware's Montreal studio instead of Edmonton but with a lot of
support from the ME3 development team.

If you're someone who cares about gaming news it's best to
choose your sources carefully. CNET
games tech writer Jeff Bakalar offered up his6 most disappointing games and game trends of 2012. His list included this year's
"lackluster" E3 convention, the WiiU's launch woes as well as occupying
two of his picks with the PSVITA.

The PSVITA? Wow, like
anybody cares anymore? The WiiU? It's
DOA, what else is there to say? Nowhere
to be found was anything about the overpriced and underperforming Medal of
Honor: Warfighter. Nor did we find any
mention of the ridiculous requirement of Diablo 3 to have a constant Internet
connection.

What about the "trend" to alienate players who opt
out of "premium" memberships like Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty by
limiting server access and upgrades? I'd
think that anyone who cares about gaming would recognize the injustice of
basically asking a gamer to pay twice for the same game in the hopes of
"free" DLC.

Lest we forget the "trend" of rushing out titles
before they're ready thus wasting hours of prime gaming time waiting for
patches to download and install. In the
worst example EA forcing everyone to download DLC files whether they want them
or not!

Or companies like Zynga that just need to die instead of
stinking up the mobile gaming space.

Here's some advice,
get your gaming news from people who actually care about gaming like CVG,
Joystiq or Kotaku. Leave the hacks covering pop culture and tech on your Yahoo
start page.

Finally,

From our, "This came out of left field
department..."

Adweek reported this week that according to an IAB report,
over 80 million people visited gaming sites in July of this year. That number is bigger than the total visitors
to porn sites in the same period. So why
does an advertising publication care about such things? Because buried in those numbers were a
noticeable tendency for visitors to watch... gamers that is. It seems watching other people play games is
at least as interesting as watching an episode of a sitcom. 23 minutes as interesting in fact which has
advertisers drooling. With gaming sites
like IGN and Twitch.tv streaming live gameplay there's a real opportunity,
according to Adweek, to tap a new market.

In response developers are trying to accommodate the trend by tweaking
their games to offer a better voyeuristic experience. Hopefully that doesn't mean we'll see more of
those annoying cinematic sequences every time your character meets an untimely
demise.

So the next time you go online don't be surprised if you
have an audience. Video games have evolved past being just the simple time sink
of our youth. A triple-A title today is
an experience more akin to a Hollywood
blockbuster than Mario Kart.

Well it's happened again, yet another multi-gigabyte
download for BF3 on Origin. Just ahead
of the launch of the Aftermath DLC the 3.8 Gigabyte download showed up Monday
whether you planned on purchasing it or not.
This may be very convenient for EA but it seems a bit ridiculous to be filling
up hard drives with content you'll never use.
Trust me, it's more than a client update and a few interface
tweaks. Nice that I get all the pain but
none of the benefits of a Premium membership.

If you're on a PC and like to game on your big screen but
aren't ready to move to the dark side (consoles) you may want to check out
"Big Picture." Available via the steam client, "Big
Picture" allows you to access all your Steam content plus Youtube, Facebook,
Twitter, Reddit and Yahoo. The interface
is similar to those found on consoles and web connected TV's and is easier to
navigate with a game controller than the regular Steam client. This may be a preview of the rumored Steam
console user interface. A smart
marketing move that would make the transition from all those "evil"
Windows PC's to Gabe's new hardware all the easier. The only problem with that is that all the
interesting stuff is on Windows!

According to new numbers, Black Ops 2 has grossed 1 Billion
dollars in the 15 days since its launch.
There's no explanation for the slow start that had initial sales down
20% over its predecessor but it may have something to do with the much hyped
but ultimately overpriced and disappointing launch of Medal of Honor
Warfighter. With a $60 price tag it's
likely wary consumers adopted a "wait and see" approach to the game.

If you suddenly see all the game studios move to the UK in
the next year you can point to the recent passing of a 25% tax reduction on
game developers in the UK. The move is
said to be an attempt to make the UK more attractive to investment in
"creative industries." which include film and television. Currently the UK rates 4th behind countries
like Canada in the number of workers employed by the game industry.

Microsoft's Windows 8 is more popular than MAC on
Steam. Considering the comparatively
limited selection of triple-A game titles available on the MAC that's not a
surprise. By rank, Windows 7, XP and
Vista still come out ahead of Windows 8, however.

With the leaked roadmap last week all signs pointed to the
eventual demise of the socketed Intel CPU in the near future. I still don't believe the enthusiast
offerings will completely go away but just in case, AMD has announced that they
will supported socketed CPU's for the foreseeable future. AMD claims..

"...But for the desktop market, and the enthusiasts with whom AMD has built
its brand, we understand what matters to them and how we can continue to
bring better value and a better experience."

That's all well and good
but I'm afraid I have to parrot an opinion already expressed by other sites. That being, that AMD's focus on the
"value" market has already caused them to cede the
performance/enthusiast crown to Intel which makes them a less than attractive
alternative should the BGA form factor take over. To truly regain the market, their products
will have to be able to compete with the Best Intel has to offer in any form
factor.

There's a strong rumor that AMD is looking to release a new
family of RADEON GPU's under the 8000 series moniker and they've already given
a name to their next dual GPU offering, The 8990. The more mainstream high end part is being
called the 8970. Specs show that both
cards will have 6 to 12 GB of memory (per GPU), die sizes of 400mm, 2560
shaders (per GPU) 48 ROP's (per GPU) and 384 bit memory bus size. The 8970 will have 322 GB/sec bandwidth and
the 8990 600 GB/sec. Expect the family
to eventually match the current 7000 series cards. The first cards in the new family were due
out this quarter but Q1 2013 is reportedly more realistic.

In related news early Thursday morning Intel has reportedly
committed to CPU sockets for the "foreseeable" future in response to
the reports of the BGA takeover.

"Intel remains committed to the growing desktop enthusiast and channel markets, and will continue to offer socketed parts in the LGA package for the foreseeable future for our customers and the Enthusiast DIY market. However, Intel cannot comment on specific long-term product roadmap plans at this time, but will disclose more details later per our normal communication process”

The next version of the hardware abuse and wasted resources
that is Crysis, Crysis 3 is scheduled for release on February 19th in the U.S.
and the 22nd in Europe. Along with this
announcement comes news that Albert
Hughes known for such cinematic high water marks such as Menace 2 society and
Dead Presidents, will be producing a cinematic video series for the game. I guess Quentin Tarantino wasn't available.

If you're a regular League of Legends player and your tired
of your feelings getting hurt by pimpled faced adolescents and middle aged men
with no sex life, Riot Games has come to your rescue. They've deployed a new "anti-troll"
unit headed by a neuroscientist and a psychologist. In an interview with Gamasutra, Travis
George, lead producer for the game said,

"We've experienced it all ourselves. But we actually sat down and said, 'how do we actually more tangibly understand how bad the impact is, or what the impact is, or understand the problem more?'

"We actually have built a team around this. We call it, lovingly, the Player Behavior and Justice Team. There are a lot of really talented folks on that team, including two PhDs. One's a cognitive neuroscientist and one's a behavioral psychologist."

He said that the science team "can help develop models for how we track and trend what we call 'player behavior'".

"We've actually developed specific trends, and our own set of metrics that we look at for measuring what percentage of times we think that players will encounter a negative experience in a game, and how severe that negative experience is,"

If you've got your shiny new WiiU and want to take a walk on
the "Wild Side" you best restrict your wanderings between 11PM and
3AM. If you're in Europe that is. Nintendo sent out an email this week informing
WiiU users that games rated PEGI 18 (Europe's ESRB equivalent) would only be
accessible from 11PM to 3AM.

"Dear customer, we would like to let you know that Nintendo has always aimed to offer gameplay experiences suited to all age groups, observing carefully all the relevant regulations regarding content access that are present in the various European countries."We have thus decided to restrict the access to content which is unsuitable to minors (PEGI) to the 11pm - 3am time window."

Looks like you'll have to miss some
sleep if you want to get some time in on Left for Dead or Mass Effect 3. The nanny state's gone corporate it seems. There's a link to the list of PEGI 18 rated
games below.